I do not totally reject chemotherapy. A few years ago, I had an argument with a Filipino friend. He is a strict follower of natural therapies. When I was in the Philippines, he brought a female reporter in her thirties to me for consultation. There was a lump in her breast about the size of a walnut. I advised her to undergo surgery but she insisted on natural therapies. Half a year later, she came to our hospital. By that time, the lump in her breast had grown to the size of a fist. Due to the lump, the skin became very tight as if it was going to burst. Initially she was given percutaneous cryosurgical ablation. After much persuasion, mastectomy was done. After the operation, the patient, our Filipino friend, who was a follower of natural therapies, and I had a heated argument surrounding the question whether she should follow with chemotherapy. Finally the reporter agreed to undergo chemotherapy. Two years later, I was invited to attend the Congress of Alternative Medicines (CAM) in the Philippines. After I had presented my paper, the reporter unexpectedly came to the podium and talked on what she felt about her breast cancer treatment. She had made a survey on dozens of cancer patients who were given chemotherapy and found that majority of the patients died; however, she believed that in her case, chemotherapy was the correct option. To that reporter and from the point of conventional therapies, chemotherapy was necessary and correct. But it is still too early to tell whether it can prevent recurrence.
The statistics on world cancer treatment by W.H.O at the end of 20th Century shows that 45% of cancer is curable, in which 22% is curable by surgery, 18% by radiotherapy and only 5% by chemotherapy. As a century-old therapy, chemotherapy plays a significant role in cancer treatment. It is the preferred treatment for certain cancer like lymphoma, acute lymphocytic leukemia, testicular seminoma, chorionepithelioma, nephroblastoma and neuroblastoma. Chemotherapy can prolong the survival period of advanced cancer patients, and in some cases, even cure them. For cancer like breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, multiple myeloma, etc., chemotherapy can relieve the patients’ condition and improve the quality of life.
The current problem is over-chemotherapy. Earl, an oncologist with Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues conducted a survey on 215488 patients within the period 1991-2000 about their final stage of treatment before they died. It was found that in 1993, 10% of advanced cancer patients were still given chemotherapy during the last two weeks of their lives. The figure increased to 12% in 1999. This was definitely excessive chemotherapy. An incomplete national statistics shows that 15% of advanced cancer patients had their death hastened by excessive and unreasonable treatment.
Johns Hopkins University study shows that chemotherapy and radiotherapy would initially lead to tumor shrinkage. But their long term use will, besides being unable to destroy more tumors, lead to the patients’ immune dysfunction or damage, infections and other side effects.